As TCP is the protocol it doesn’t matter if the remote computer is 11.2 billion kilometers away as long as a reachable route exist, VNC in OpenSuSE is having more and more problems and bugs as the releases increase, with OS 10.3 or less you only needed to change 5 lines or so in 3 or 4 files. in 11.1 or 11.2 is not working as it should. i am having a nightmare here with 2 computers and 1 laptop, and guess what… 10 inches away each computer!
an example, i have like 20 customers with SLES 10 sp2,
i access those servers at display :0 or :nn using VNC.
with OS 11.2 or 11.1 i cannot even use vnc over http.
but, with 10.3 is 2 clicks away…
p.d. i am sorry for my bad english, not my native language.
I just tested it again (I earlier tested during milestone) connecting two PCs on our home LAN via vnc.
Both computers running KDE-4.3.1, where one is a 64-bit 11.2 install and the other a 32-bit 11.2 install. And vnc just works. What can I say ? I am not an expert so I can not give you reams of detail.
I do note I am not a user who takes pride in minimizing key presses confined to a specific Linux app. That is not now, and never has been the Linux way from what I was taught… One or two extra key presses is not going to kill me. I also learned a long time ago I could put large expressions in a text file that is easily accessable via a destkop icon and copy and paste selected commands into the konsole. Or simply use history from the konsole and copy and paste a command. Or I can create a script file, and even have the script file run from a key sequence. So there are a zillion ways to do things, and no need to groan about a key press here or there. Thats the beauty of Linux.
In any case it is simple to do. Incredibly so.
So all I do is copy and paste the following where computer-a (ip 192.168.2.110) is going to take over the desktop of computer-b (ip 192.168.2.111):
**
computer-a >** ssh -t -L 5900:localhost:5900 oldercpu@192.168.2.111 'x11vnc -localhost -nolookup -nopw -display :0’
and in a second console , also on computer-a computer-a >vncviewer -encodings “tightvnc copyrect hextile” localhost:0
…
where “oldercpu” is an account on computer-b that is running, and thats it.
Now I did NOT spend one second configuring anything, other than to open up my firewall for ssh and for vnc. And I also installed tightvnc and x11vnc. No other config files to configure.
I’ve been using this technique for over 2 years to remotely maintain my mother’s PC a continent away. It worked in openSUSE-10.2 and it worked in openSUSE-10.3, and in 11.0, and in 11.1 and it works now in 11.2.
IMHO you need to rationalize your methodology, and stick with something that just works.
I’m surprised that a thread I initiated months ago is still alive! Anyway, if you want to do serious remote session, NX is the way to go : it’s so much faster and safer than vnc. And it runs on Macs and Windows.
If you only need no more thant 2 simultaneous remote sessions, use NoMachine NX free edition for Linux. If you need more than that, use FreeNX available from the Suse repository. For the client, the Nomachine client is all you need.
I don’t really fault the openSuSe product for this problem since the same issue applies to the SLES and SLED commercial builds.
I’m surrounded by Mac users and running a data center that is 90% Apple Xserve. The remaining 10% are represented by ~10 Sun Solaris boxes and ~10 HP servers running SLES. There are so few problems with the latter that no one else in operations remembers (or ever learned) how to manage them.
Bringing in the 10.x versions of SLES and testing with 10.x open product was painless and integrated seamlessly. No new clients or special settings were required (our engineers may use CotVNC inside our network or using VPN connections only).
No version 11 product has gone into production. I’m buying some SLES 11 subscriptions just to get installation support to see if the VNC and LDAP issues I have encountered can be easily be fixed on the server side. I’ll happily post any constructive information I get.
I was one of the luck ones that won an HP Netbook with SLED 11 installed when Novell did the version 11 introduction. Sadly, the wireless drivers never worked on the machine–it’s bound for a local charity.
Slow Chicken of the VNC Client on Mac OS X to Opensuse 11VNC server solution:
Make the following changes to your Chicken of the VNC settings and is should speed up.
Under the Chicken of the VNC pull down menu:
Select Preferences
Under Performance, move the slide bar for front most connection down just 1 bar.
Close this window.
Under the Connection pull down menu:
Select Connection Profiles
For the default profile, select the color tab
Select Millions of Colors
Close this window.